Espaillat will challenge Rangel for congressional seat
By MIAWLING LAM
State Sen. Adriano Espaillat
will challenge Charlie Rangel for
his seat in Congress.
Espaillat, who represents a
large section of Riverdale in the
state senate announced his intention on Tuesday morning and is
currently circulating petitions to
qualify for a spot on the state’s
primary ballot.
Ibrahim Khan, a spokesman
for Espaillat, said while they
haven’t made an ofﬁcial decision
as to when, or if, they will launch
a campaign, he conﬁrmed they
were collecting signatures.
“Given his strong record as a
ﬁghter for New York City’s poor
and working families, Senator
Espaillat has been encouraged
by the community to pursue a
run for Congress,” he said.
The announcement has politi-

cal pundits licking their chops
as it sets the stage for a dramatic
dogﬁght over Rangel’s seat.
Espaillat’s decision to run follows a week of ﬂurried activity in
which maps for the state Senate.
Assembly and congressional districts were ﬁnalized and Albany
legislators signed off on plans
for a June 26 primary for both
federal and state ofﬁces.
Under the ﬁnalized congressional boundaries, which were
largely drawn by federal magistrate Roanne L. Mann, The
Bronx will be carved up into
four districts instead of the ﬁve
originally proposed by state
lawmakers. Only one of the four
districts will be wholly contained
within The Bronx.
The biggest game-changer,
however, is set to be Rangel’s 15th
District, which will become the

13th District.
Although it will retain its
Harlem base, the new district will
cover all of Espaillat’s stronghold
in Washingston Heights and
Inwood and move up into The
Bronx and cover Bedford Park,
Norwood, Kingsbridge Heights,
and parts of Kingsbridge and
University Heights.
Census data shows it will
also be 55 percent Hispanic, 27
percent black and 12 percent
white.
As rumors swirl around about
Rangel’s ill health, Espaillat’s
congressional run represents a
win-win proposition.
Even if he loses his bid to unseat Rangel in the June primary,
he could still keep his job and
seek re-election in the Senate in
the September primary.
It also comes just days after
Espaillat revealed he was forming
a seven-member exploratory committee to mull over his options.

Congressman Charles Rangel

State Senator Adriano Espaillat

Bronx Borough President
Ruben Diaz Jr. said he would
endorse Rangel in a potential
showdown, while Assemblyman
Jeffrey Dinowitz declined to back
a speciﬁc candidate just yet.
The new congressional lines
also keep Riverdale under Rep.
Eliot Engel, who picks up a larger

portion of Westchester but loses
the southern half of Rockland
County.
Rep. Joseph Crowley’s and
Rep. Jose Serrano’s districts
remain virtually unchanged,
although Crowley loses parts of
Co-Op City to Engel.
Continued on Page 13

By MIAWLING LAM
City ofﬁcials have apparently
rejected housing in favor of bigbox retail stores for the longawaited 230th Street Broadway
Plaza development.
Documents show a two-story
shopping mall appears to have
been chosen as the winning project, beating four other proposals
in the process.
While the Economic Development Corporation remains
mum, preliminary signs suggest
experienced national developer
Equity One Inc. has been tapped
to redevelop the 80,000-squarefoot plot of city land.
According to a three-page
brochure that appeared on Ripco
Realty’s website and has since
been taken down, Equity One
had been seeking tenants to
occupy just four spaces totaling
115,063 square feet at the site.
The available space was to be
split evenly between two ﬂoors
and range from 17,957 square
feet to 38,691 square feet.
Under the plan, vehicular access
would be made available from both
West 230th Street and Verveleen
Place, while pedestrians enter via
a small plaza on Broadway.

Artist’s impression of the 230th St. Broadway Plaza entrance. The image,
which appeared on Ripco Realty’s website, has since been taken down.
Undercover parking for 129
cars was to be provided as well,
offering much-needed relief for
motorists accustomed to scrambling for spots on the street.
The document suggested
the project, to replace what is
currently a 75,000-square-foot
city-owned parking lot, was set
for completion by spring 2014.
Diagrams also showed merchants will have access to a
receiving area measuring more

than 3,800 square feet on the
corner of West 230th Street and
the Major Deegan Expressway.
EDC spokesperson, Kyle
Sklerov denied Equity One’s proposal had been chosen and said,
”no decision has been made.”
As of press time, calls to three
Ripco Realty contacts and the
Equity One’s regional ofﬁce in
Manhattan were not returned.
Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz
Continued on Page 13

Thursday, March 22, 2012 • The RIVERDALE REVIEW

2

Diaz seeks relief for heating oil conversion cost
By MIAWLING LAM
Member item funds should be partially
used to help low-income co-ops comply
with the city’s controversial heating oil
conversion mandate, according to Bronx
Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.
Under a required phase-out of the
dirtiest types of heating oil, all residential
buildings have to switch from No. 6 heating oil to at least No. 4—a cleaner, more
expensive oil—by 2015.
By 2030, buildings will be legally required to burn only No. 2 heating oil or
natural gas.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and environmental activists trumpeted the landmark change and said it would clean the
city’s air, but others are worried about the
hefty conversion costs.
Diaz said City Council representatives should be encouraged to use their
annual allocation of capital funds to
help cash-strapped buildings convert so
residents aren’t hit with higher maintenance fees.
City Council members, along with borough presidents, are the only elected ofﬁcials
who are still afforded member items.
“I want to see the conversions, but
what I don’t want is for the co-ops to be
passing it onto the tenants,” he said.
“There are a lot of different buildings
that need to be converted. It is very expensive to do so but…I would encourage
some of my colleagues and City Council
members to try and dedicate some of
their capital dollars to identify buildings
in their communities so that we can have
cleaner air but we do so without forcing
people out of their houses.”
Diaz delivered the remarks during
a surprise appearance at last Tuesday

HHP killer sentenced
to 30 years by NJ judge

By DAVID GREENE
A Jersey City judge has sentenced a
man to 30 years in prison for killing his
girlfriend and dumping her body along
the Henry Hudson Parkway.
On Friday, March 16, Superior Court
Judge Francis Schultz sentenced Shawn
Southerland, 50, to 50 years behind bars
for the murder of Christie Neely, 36, whose
body was discovered in a suitcase on the
southbound Henry Hudson Parkway in
the Fieldston section on April 7, 2007.
On April 1, Southerland was found
guilty of strangling Neely in her Bayonne,
New Jersey, home as her young son slept
in the next room.
The young woman’s body was discovered by a highway road crew removing
debris from the roadway.
Southerland, who represented himself
during the non-jury trial, must serve the entire
30-year sentence before his release. The convicted killer must then spend an additional
ﬁve years under a supervised release.
Southerland, a golf caddy in Bayonne,
was convicted after being identiﬁed by a
store manager as the man who purchased
and later returned a suitcase that contained Neely’s DNA.
The killer had returned to the shop for
a larger suitcase when he apparently realized her body would not ﬁt in the smaller
one he had originally purchased.
Southerland disappeared after the murder and was found a year later working
at a golf course in Pennsylvania under an
alias. After the trial it was revealed that
Southerland had ten prior convictions
over the last twenty years.

night’s Community Board 8 general
board meeting.
He said The Bronx, through his ofﬁce,
invested $500,000 toward a pilot program
last year where low-income buildings
were provided with ﬁnancial assistance
to comply. The ﬁrst building to beneﬁt
from the program was a 44-unit co-op at
530 East 159th Street.
Diaz said he hoped to offer the funding again this year to ease the ﬁnancial
burden for co-op owners.
According to ofﬁcial statistics provided
by the Bloomberg administration, around
200 buildings in the 10463 ZIP code are
currently burning No. 6 oil. In the 10471
ZIP code, an estimated 59 buildings burn
the heaviest oil.

Association of Riverdale Cooperatives
and Condominiums President Stephen
Budihas has been a vocal critic of the
unfunded mandate.
Although he supports the end game
for cleaner air, he said buildings would
be slugged with a bill of up to $500,000
and pay higher upkeep fees.
To ensure compliance, buildings not
only have to replace or convert their
boilers, but must also pay for chimney
sleeves, heating pipes and costs related
to street work.
Councilman G. Oliver Koppell said he
would be reluctant to use public funds
for private purposes but said the city was
looking into ways to alleviate the hefty
ﬁnancial conversion costs.

“I am concerned about the burden on
co-ops, and the Council is looking for
ways in which we may be able to help,”
he said on Monday.
Koppell said there was a meeting
scheduled for Wednesday, March 21, to
explore this very issue and that ofﬁcials
would look into offering landlords and
co-op owners tax abatements.
New York City residents are also still
awaiting further details on the city’s
ﬁnancial assistance program.
Earlier this month, Steve Caputo, a
policy advisor in the Mayor’s Ofﬁce of
Long Term Planning and Sustainability,
said landlords and co-op boards could
be offered low-interest, unsecured bank
loans to help them convert to low-sulfur
heating fuel.
At the time, he said city ofﬁcials would make
an announcement in the coming weeks.

By MIAWLING LAM
A local massage parlor suspected of
serving as a front for prostitution is apparently attempting to reopen under a
new name.
The Riverdale Review has learned that
New Healing Touch, a massage parlor located at 4685 Manhattan College Parkway,
has placed advertisements on at least two
classiﬁeds websites, trading as Green Forest Spa at the same location.
An advertisement posted on backpage.
com on March 11 touts the grand opening of “Green Forest Spa” and states the
business offers deep-tissue, Swedish and
shiatsu massages performed by a 22-yearold “nice licensed Asian masseuse.”
The post also claims the facility’s table
showers will “move aut your stress and
pain [sic].”
According to Urban Dictionary, an
online reference source of slang words
and phrases, a table shower is deﬁned as
a service in which a masseuse bathes a
customer while they are lying on a table.
“First face down then on your back so
particular attention can be paid to private parts.”
The backpage.com posting fails to
specify a location—it simply notes it is off
Exit 11 of I-87—and states it is open daily
10 a.m. to 11 p.m. However, the phone
number listed is the same one used by
New Healing Touch.
Another advertisement on craigslist.
org on March 14 plugs the grand opening of the same new massage parlor—this
time, narrowing down its location to
242nd Street at Van Cortlandt Park.
The posting ﬂaunts the facility as offering

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“Licensed the Asian Bodywork” and onehour services for $60, which will reduce
muscular pain and improve circulation.
Again, among the listed offerings is a table
shower. The phone number listed is also the
same one used by New Healing Touch.
The image makeover comes just two weeks
after undercover NYPD investigators busted
employees for soliciting sexual services.
Ofﬁcers arrested and charged Yingji Li,
40, with one count of prostitution during
a sting operation on December 22, while
Ying Al Li, 43, was collared for the same
offense on February 29.
It is understood the women, both
Queens residents, offered to manually
stimulate a client’s penis for $20.
The two busts mean authorities now
have legal grounds to pursue New Healing
Touch’s closure.
Contacted by phone last Tuesday, Jing
Li, a man connected to Green Forest Spa,
said the massage parlor had been open for
a year under that name.
He claimed the new spa was in no way
related to New Healing Touch, a business
he said closed down two years ago.
The man also said he was the brother
of Ying Al Li, whom he alleged was the
owner of Green Forest Spa. He denied his
sister ever offered sexual services.
“She’s never doing this prostitution,” he
said. “She has a therapy license. She’s been
working no problems. There is something
wrong. She is maybe discrimination.”
When asked why the business was
advertising a grand opening, Li said he
did not know.
The man also said the two employees
Continued on Page 13

3
The RIVERDALE REVIEW • Thursday, March 22, 2012

Massage parlor has two identities

Around the schools...
This year’s parents association fundraising auction will be held on Saturday,
March 24, from 7 to 10 p.m. in the student
center at the Riverdale Country School,
5250 Fieldston Road. The evening of food,
wine and fun is for adults only.

P.S. 81

Save the date—June 9—for a performance of “P.S. 81 Presents A Bronx Tale.”
More than 100 students are now rehearsing for a hometown revue featuring music
with a Bronx connection, including songs
popularized by Billy Joel, Carly Simon,
Dion and the Belmonts, Celia Cruz and
others.

M.S./H.S. 141—Riverdale/
Kingsbridge Academy

The community is invited to RKA’s
annual Health Fair this Thursday, March
22, from 12:20 to 2:40 p.m. in the school
gym. The event, coordinated by Austin
Cromartie, is part of Dr. Mehmet Oz’s
HealthCorps, a proactive movement
implemented in 54 schools throughout
the country. HealthCorps aims to control
childhood obesity by empowering students and their families
to become health activists in their communities. Fair participants
can take the U.S. Army
fitness challenge, run
an obstacle course, talk
with a Monteﬁore Medical Center cardiologist
and learn about Sahaja
Meditation. Wellness food booths will
include products from the Raw Ice Cream
Company—featuring samples of its vegan
treat made from renewable plant-based
ingredients. The school is at 660 West
237th Street off Independence Avenue.

Horace Mann School

Senior Sam Bauman was among 850
students selected to compete for the National Chemistry Olympiad. Bauman will
take the exam at the end of April.
Junior Rachel Ha qualiﬁed as a semiﬁnalist on the U.S. Biology Olympiad. To
achieve this status, she scored in the top 10
percent of those who took an exceptionally challenging exam. She will take the
semi-ﬁnalist exam in several weeks.

Manhattan College

The community is invited to the second
annual Tournées French Film Festival from
Wednesday, March 21, through Wednesday, March 28. An opening reception from
5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the lobby of Hayden
Hall will kick off the event, sponsored by
the school of arts in conjunction with
the departments of modern languages
and literatures, English, ﬁne arts, peace
studies, philosophy and sociology. This
year’s theme is The Art of Communication. Screenings will begin at 6:30
p.m. in room 100 of Hayden Hall. Films
include “Potiche” (translated as “trophy
wife”) by François Ozon, featuring Catherine Deneuve; “A Prophet,” by Jacques
Audiard, know as the French Martin
Scorsese; “ Of Gods and Men,” portraying Trappist monks in Algeria, by Xavier
Beauvois; “The Illusionist,” an animated
ﬁlm about nonverbal communication, by
Sylvain Chomet; and “Certiﬁed Copy,” a
romance set in Tuscany, by the Iranian
director Abbas Kiarostami. Faculty on the
organizing committee will introduce the

ﬁlms and conduct a discussion after each
showing. For more information, contact
Samira Hassa at 718-862-7917 or samira.
hassa@manhattan.edu.
The community is welcome to attend
this year’s Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith Education Center’s Toby Kirsh
Memorial Lecture on Tuesday, April 3,
at 4:30 p.m. in the Alumni Room at
O’Malley Library. The event will feature
Holocaust survivor Leon Gleicher, who
escaped from a Polish ghetto and fought
with the Russian partisans. The series
honors Belgian Resistance member Toby
Kirsh, celebrating her heroic acts as well
as her activism, intellectual engagement
and empathy. For more information,
contact Jeff Horn at 718-862-7129 or jeff.
horn@manhattan.edu.

College of Mount Saint
Vincent

The ninth annual “Explore Your Opportunities—The Sky’s the Limit!” Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Conference attracted 250 seventh-grade girls from the ﬁve boroughs
and Westchester last Saturday. The conference, sponsored by the Westchester
branch of the American Association
of University Women, provides young
women with opportunities to meet and
interact with positive
female role models in
the science, technology, engineering and
mathematics fields.
The 17 hands-on workshops presenters
included a zookeeper from the Bronx Zoo
and a chemist from Estee Lauder, who
shared the secrets of cold-cream making.
This is the third year the conference was
held on the CMSV campus.

Local Scholars

Springﬁeld College in Springﬁeld, Massachusetts, has announced that Carla Lide
earned a Master of Education degree in
psychology for studies completed in 2011.
Springﬁeld College, founded in 1885, is
known as the “birthplace of basketball”
and for its humanics philosophy of
educating students in spirit, mind, and
body for leadership in service to others.
The college offers undergraduate and
graduate degree programs in health sciences, human and social services, sport
management and movement studies,
education, business, and the arts and
sciences. It also offers doctoral programs
in physical education, physical therapy
and counseling psychology. It is rankedin 2012 by U.S. News & World Report
as among the top tier of Best Regional
Universities—North North Region. More
than 5,000 traditional, nontraditional and
international students study at its main
campus in Springﬁeld and at its School
of Human Services campuses across the
country.

By MIAWLING LAM
Efforts to ﬁll the vacant assistant principal position at P.S. 24 have stalled due
to two separate pending investigations
involving the school’s administration.
Department of Education officials
posted the job vacancy in September and
invited candidates to apply, but six months
later, students remain without an ofﬁcial

assistant principal for a second year.
Sources have conﬁrmed the hiring
process came to a screeching halt because of an open investigation into the
school’s interim acting assistant principal,
Emanuele Verdi.
A spokeswoman for Richard J. Condon,
Special Commissioner of Investigation
for the New York City Public Schools,

conﬁrmed SCI “currently has one case
that is pending involving P.S. 24” but
could not provide further comment as it
was an open investigation.
A Department of Education spokeswoman said the city’s own separate investigation, which began in June, also remained
open. She, too, declined to answer any
further questions relating to the case.

Delayed effects for Croton parks money
By MIAWLING LAM
City ofﬁcials insist The Bronx is seeing
the fruits of the nearly $200 million it was
promised from the controversial Croton
mitigation fund and estimate the last cent
will be spent by 2014.
Allaying the public’s fears that it is being
shortchanged, the city’s parks department
said the funds were being spent to beautify
parks across the borough, and the last project will be completed within two years.
The projected date emerged at a closed
meeting between Bronx Parks Commissioner Hector Aponte and a slew of elected
ofﬁcials last Friday.
Documents obtained by the Riverdale
Review show that as of Monday, March
5, just 37 of the 62 projects that were to
be funded from the mitigation account
had been completed.
Eight other projects are under construction, a further seven in the procurement process and another 10 in the design process.
The $200 million cash injection was promised to The Bronx by the Department of Environmental Protection in 2003 in exchange
for permission to build the Croton Water
Filtration Plant in Van Cortlandt Park.

The mitigation fund was to bankroll
the construction of new playgrounds,
repairs to dilapidated ball ﬁelds and
major renovations to virtually every
city-run park across the borough, but
the public and elected ofﬁcials have long
complained that projects have taken too
long to complete.
However, park ofﬁcials disputed the
claim and said each dollar was being
whittled away, albeit slowly, to improve
Bronx parks.
According to a detailed breakdown of
how funds have been spent, authorities
funneled nearly $2 million to acquire the
right of way for the development of the
Putnam Trail and $12.6 million on the
reconstruction of Van Cortlandt Park’s
parade grounds.
Further east in The Bronx, nearly
$680,000 has been spent on stabilizing
the pavilion at Orchard Beach, $778,000
on the reconstruction of the bridle trails in
Pelham Bay Park and $4.8 million on new
playgrounds, promenade pavement and
passive spaces for the ﬁrst aqueduct section
from Kingsbridge Road to Merton Place.
The seven-page document also states

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nearly $1.5 million has been allocated to
renovate the decrepit comfort station in
Van Cortlandt Park at 242nd Street and
Broadway, a project that has been under
construction for more than two years.
Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz said he was
glad to see exactly how the parks department
has spent the nearly $200 million allocation
since the city inherited the money.
However, he said it was unacceptable
that it has taken more than seven years
from the time the memorandum of understanding was signed for the money to
ﬁlter down to the grassroots level.
“They said they think the last project will
be completed sometime in 2014,” he said.
“If that’s the case, it would have taken at
least 10 years for these projects—that The
Bronx was promised—to be completed. Of
course, once the projects are completed,
people will be very happy. But why would
it take 10 years?
“The Bronx has had to put up with this
ﬁltration project for a long time, and yet
we haven’t been able to enjoy one of the
few beneﬁts of it, so that’s disappointing.
Progress has been very slow.”
Continued on Page 9

As the Riverdale Review ﬁrst reported
in September, Verdi is alleged to have
collected thousands of airline miles after
paying for school supplies with his personal American Express credit card.
The school then wrote checks to reimburse him. Under department guidelines,
principals must pay suppliers and service
providers using funds from their school
bank accounts and should use their personal debit or credit cards only in case
of emergency.
It is not known how long the practice
has been taking place, but it is understood
the extra airline miles that Verdi collected
supplemented those already in his account and allowed him to redeem a free
ticket to Italy last summer. At the time,
three independent sources at the school
conﬁrmed the allegations.
Meanwhile, the city’s probe is understood to be focused on claims principal
Donna Connelly falsiﬁed ﬁnancial information and signed off on fraudulent
timesheets.
Investigators are also believed to be
looking into her alleged misuse of school
funds and the possible warehousing of
the assistant principal position.
Critics have long suggested that Connelly left the position unﬁlled for two
years so Verdi, her close friend and work
colleague, could complete the required
coursework and ﬁll the vacancy.
Three years ago, P.S. 24 had as many
as two assistant principals.
News of the probes surfaced last year
after the Review received tips from staff
at the school.
The matter takes on increased urgency
because principal Connelly becomes
eligible to retire at maximum pension
beneﬁts in October of this year.

5
The RIVERDALE REVIEW • Thursday, March 22, 2012

Investigations at P.S. 24 hinder Asst. Principal choice

Thursday, March 22, 2012 • The RIVERDALE REVIEW

6

Manhattan College to host
French Film Festival
Manhattan College will sponsor the
second annual Tournées French Film
Festival with an opening reception on
Wednesday, March 21 from 5:30-6:30
p.m. in the lobby of Hayden Hall. The
theme of the festival this year is The Art
of Communication, and all are welcome
to attend the weeklong event sponsored
by the school of arts in conjunction with
the modern languages and literatures,
English, ﬁne arts, peace studies, philosophy and sociology departments.
The festival will open with the ﬁlm
Potiche by François Ozon, followed by A
Prophet by Jacques Audiard, Of Gods and
Men by Xavier Beauvois, The Illusionist
by Sylvain Chomet, and Certiﬁed Copy by
Abbas Kiarostami. A full ﬁlm schedule and
descriptions are listed below, and all screenings will be held at 6:30 p.m. in Hayden Hall,
room 100. Faculty on the organizing committee will introduce the ﬁlms and conduct
a discussion after each showing.
The organizing committee consists of
faculty from a variety of disciplines at
Manhattan College: Samira Hassa, Ph.D.,
assistant professor of modern languages
and literatures (French); Evelyn Scaramella, Ph.D., assistant professor of modern
languages and literatures (Spanish); Sarah
Scott, Ph.D., assistant professor of philosophy; Margaret Toth, Ph.D., assistant
professor of English; and Nevart Wanger,
assistant professor of modern languages

and literatures (French).
Film Schedule:
• Wednesday, March 21: Reception
from 5:30-6:30 p.m. followed by Potiche,
which translates to trophy wife by director François Ozon. Catherine Deneuve,
known as the queen of French cinema,
brings her comedic timing to this role as
the ﬁlm explores feminism on personal
and political levels.
• Thursday, March 22: A Prophet by
director Jacques Audiard, who is sometimes
referred to as the French Martin Scorsese.
The ﬁlm examines prison life through Tahar
Rahim’s poignant portrayal of Malik.
• Monday, March 26: Of Gods and Men
by director Xavier Beauvois portrays a real
incident from 1996 involving Trappist
monks in Algeria. The ﬁlm touches on
the questions of faith and doubt as the
monks’ story unfolds.
• Tuesday, March 27: The Illusionist by
director Sylvain Chomet is an animated ﬁlm
following Chomet’s The Triplets of Belleville
(2003). Written by comic Jacques Tati, the
ﬁlm offers a lovely message about how
people can communicate nonverbally.
• Wednesday, March 28: Certiﬁed
Copy by director Abbas Kiarostami, an
acclaimed Iranian director, brings his
ﬁrst ﬁlm to the West with a story that
explores relationships through romance.
Set in Tuscany, Certiﬁed Copy promises to
make you ponder what is real and what
is fake in relationships.
Tournées is a program within the
French American Cultural Exchange

(FACE), and the festival is made possible
with the generous support of the Cultural
Services of the French Embassy and the
French Ministry of Culture. The Florence
Gould Foundation, The Grand Marnier
Foundation, Highbrow Entertainment
and Centre National de la Cinématographie et de l’image animée also sponsor
the FACE program.
For more information, please visit
http://www.facecouncil.org/tournees/
or contact Samira Hassa by phone
at (718) 862-7917 or email samira.
hassa@manhattan.edu.

Open House for RCT Summer
Performing Arts Program

Riverdale Children’s Theatre will be
holding an open house for their Summer
Lights Summer Session, on Sunday March
25th from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the
Riverdale Kingsbridge Academy located
at 660 West 237th Street.
Summer Lights will immerse students
from Grades 1-9 in the world of musical theatre and will combine professional theatre
training and performing arts enrichment
with classic summer fun, culminating in
fully produced stage productions for the
whole community to enjoy! This summer’s
productions will be Legally Blonde the
Musical and Disney’s The Aristocats!
The program will run from July 2nd
-August 10th, weekdays from 9am- 4pm
and all levels of experience are welcome.
Participants will experience daily classes in
Tap, Jazz and Ballet, Acting and voice. Each
child will be given specialized instruction,
based on their age and skill level. (7th
Grade Students preparing to audition for
NYC Performing Arts High Schools this
fall will have a targeted prep class) Summer Lights will be held on the campus of
the Riverdale-Kingsbridge Academy. They
have 2 spacious classrooms (with large
windows and air conditioning), the Dance
studio, the Music room and the Auditorium with a stage. Daily lunch and outdoor
activities will be held in the adjacent park
and nearby Seton Park for lunches, games
and team building activities.
The staff is composed of NYS certiﬁed
teachers with Masters level degrees and
accomplished performing arts educators,
including many Broadway veterans. The
young performers will also be treated
to 2 Broadway ﬁeld trips and weekly
workshops with Broadway and Television
professionals.
For more information please visit their
website at www.riverdaletheatre.org or
call 646-436-3045

Community Cooking at
the Riverdale Y

Community cooking at Riverdale Y will
be held on Sunday, March 25, from 10:30
a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The class is called Gone
Fishin’. It is limited to 10 people. Class
Price: $25 plus $15 food/supply fee.
Want to spend a few hours meeting
new people and learning to cook fresh,
healthy food? Join Danielle Rehfeld for
Community Cooking and be prepared
to actively prep, cook and taste!From
Soups and Salads to Hors D’oeuvres and
Entrees, the possibilities are endless with
ﬁsh. Students will work in small teams to
make simple, ﬂavorful, recipes they can
easily replicate at home for themselves,

family and friends.
Danielle Rehfeld is a NY based chef
and writer. A Riverdale native, Danielle
attended the Institute of Culinary Education where she completed her externship
at Daniel and went on to work at Eleven
Madison Park.
The Y is located at 5625 Arlington
Avenue. For more information call 718548-8200 ext 0.

Open mic at the Club of
Riverdale

The Open Mic Night at The Club of Riverdale will once again take place on Sunday,
March 25th at 8 PM. Musicians of all genres,
from advanced amateurs to professionals
are invited to bring their instruments and
perform, and the public at large is invited to
attend for a wonderful night of free entertainment. Food, beer, wine and other beverages
will be available for purchase.
The event will be hosted by Mark The
Harper, a veteran of the NY music scene,
and a long time Riverdale resident. The
Club of Riverdale is located in the Century
Tower at 2600 Netherland Ave. Sign-up
time for musicians begins at 7:45. The
event will kick off with a 40 minute set
by Mark The Harper’s Acoustic Duo. No
Cover, No Minimum.
For more info, please email
bronxharp1@aol.com.

Upcoming activities at
Riverdale Temple

The following activities will be held at
Riverdale Temple this coming week:
Medicare/Medicaid seminar with
Eliot Kaplan. Sunday, March 25th from
11:30am-12:30pm at Riverdale Temple
4545 Independence Avenue Riverdale, NY
10471 718-548-3800 ext 0 for details.
High school to college informational
session “Gettting Started With the College Process 101”, Sunday, March 25th,
2pm, at Riverdale Temple 4545 Independence Avenue Riverdale, NY 10471. To
RSVP, or for more information: mollie.
reznick@gmail.com
Adult Education at Riverdale Temple.
Thursday, March 29th at 7:30pm Riverdale Temple 4545 Independence Avenue
Riverdale, NY 10471
March 30th, 5:30 pm, Tot Shabbat
with Inbal Sharett at Riverdale Temple
4545 Independence Avenue Riverdale,
NY 10471
Riverdale Temple is hosting its annual
Second Night Passover Seder Saturday,
March 7th, beginning promptly at 7:30pm.
Open to the community! Come enjoy a kosher meal. Only $40/adult and $15/ages 512. Children under 5 are free. Reservations
are necessary, so please call the temple at
718-548-3800 ext. 0 or rivtemple@aol.com
for more information.

Toastmasters Club invites
new members

Bronx Toastmasters Club of Riverdale
invites new members to join in at their
free meeting on March 28 at 7:00 p.m.
at the Riverdale Neighborhood House,
5521 Mosholu Avenue.
Wouldn’t you like to communicate effectively? Now you can! Toastmasters will show
you how to listen effectively, think on your
feet, and speak conﬁdently. You will learn
valuable leadership skills-all in a supportive,
non-intimidating environment.
Come as a guest and witness for yourself what they accomplish. They meet
every second and fourth Wednesday of
the month. For further information, visit
their website http://www.bronxtoastmastersclub.org or call 718-796-6671.

7

On Tuesday, March 27 at 10:30 am,
the Simon Senior Center will be having
a lecture of
‘ Keeping Your Joints Healthy’. This
lecture and power point presentation
will be done by a clinical teams from
Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville. They
will discuss which foods are anti-inﬂammatory to help your joints stay nimble.
Alone with exercise tips, and options
for what to do if you can no longer
live with the pain as well as managing
your arthritis and joint pain. The entire
community is welcome to the lecture.
The Simon Senior Center is located at
the Riverdale Y, 5625 Arlington Avenue.
For more information contact Toby at
718-548-8200, ext 223.

ARC to hold seminar

ARC is inviting the community to its
next seminar and to invite all member
buildings to send representatives of
their Boards of Directors to attend. As
part of their paid annual membership,
directors representing member cooperatives are all welcomed and encouraged
to attend. All building managers are
also encouraged to attend.
The presentations will include:
Energy $avings Techniques, Compliance with Local Law 43, NYSERDA
Programs.
The invited guest presenters will be:
Ernesto Martinez III, Chief Engineer/
AEE; and Cameron Bard, NYSERDA.
Energy saving and the concomitant ﬁnancial savings it brings is an issue that is
in the forefront of discussion worldwide
as well as inside every cooperative and
condominium board room in Riverdale.
This seminar will present the critical
combination of hands- on experience
& know-how coupled with a discussion
of legislative programs of support that
should prove of signiﬁcant and tangible
value to all boards of directors.
The seminar will be held on Tuesday,
March 27, 2012 at 7:30 P.M. in the
meeting room of St. Gabriel’s Church
(on Netherland Avenue, just south of
W. 235th Street; if driving, enter from
235th St.)
If your building is not a paid
member at this time, non-members
are welcome to attend at the rate of
$25.00 per person. Checks should be
made out to ‘Association of Riverdale
Cooperatives’ and brought with you
on March 27th.

Social Security Assistance
at Engel ofﬁce

Representatives of the Social Security
Administration will be at Congressman
Eliot Engel’s Bronx ofﬁce on Wednesday, March 28th to assist people with
questions or problems concerning this
program.
This service, at 3655 Johnson Avenue, is available only by appointment,
which may be made by calling Richard
Fedderman of the Congressman’s ofﬁce
at 718 796-9700.
Rep. Engel said, ‘Social Security is an
issue directly affecting many people in
my district. Consequently, I have these
experts from the Social Security Admin-

istration come to my ofﬁce on a monthly
basis to help constituents with any problems
they may have with the program.’
The Congressman said the Social Security
website (www.ssa.gov) offers a wide array
of on-line services including ﬁling for retirement, survivors and disability beneﬁts,
change of address, replacing lost Medicare
cards, and keeping up to date on Social
Security matters.

Passover Model Seder at
Simon Senior Center

On Wednesday, March 28 at 11:30 am,
the Simon Senior Center will have their
Passover Model Seder, led by Rabbi Dov Katz
of the Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel.
The entire community is welcome to this
program. The cost for this special seder is $8.
Please join us for singing and good cheer.
The Riverdale Y is located at 5625 Arlington
Avenue. For more information, please call
Toby at 718-548-8200, ext 223.

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz applauds
New York Magazine for its extremely positive article highlighting the Kingsbridge
community’s real estate value, excellent
business establishments, and neighborhood
amenities.
‘I am extraordinarily pleased that New York
Magazine has recognized the desirability and
positive future of Kingsbridge. I’ve been saying
for a long time that so many great things are
taking place in Kingsbridge and its future is
bright. The fact that the River Plaza shopping
center has been such a huge success and the
upcoming development of the Stella D’oro
site and West 230th Street and Broadway all
indicate that there is much conﬁdence in our
Kingsbridge community. Substantial business
investment along the Broadway corridor,
which I have advocated for many years, is
a huge vote of conﬁdence in Kingsbridge’s
future,’ said Assemblyman Dinowitz.

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Koppell commended by
Multiple Sclerosis Society

Council Member Oliver Koppell was
named ‘Legislator of the Year’ by the
Multiple Sclerosis Society New York CitySouthern New York Chapter at its annual
meeting on March 14, 2012, which took
place during National MS Awareness Week,
March 10th-18th.
The New York City-Southern New York
Chapter serves the 10,000 people living with
MS in the ﬁve boroughs, Westchester, Putnam,
Rockland, Orange and Sullivan Counties.
The Annual Meeting provides an opportunity for the New York City-Southern New
York Chapter to recognize supporters and
volunteers for their outstanding achievements. Koppell, who is Chair of the Committee on Mental Health, Mental Retardation, Alcoholism, Drug Abuse and Disability
Services, was honored for his advocacy on
behalf of the disabled community and, most
particularly, for his steadfast efforts, including the introduction of legislation, requiring
that all future New York City yellow cabs
be wheelchair accessible.
‘I am gratiﬁed to receive this honor,
Koppell said, and pleased that my efforts,
as well as those of the disability community, has played a part in the inclusion of
wheelchair accessibility in the new state
taxi legislation.

CIVILITY EVENT
11:30 a.m. Manhattan College
Dante’s Den
Manhattan College will host a faculty teach-in. A panel of
nine professors will brieﬂy discuss the concept of civility.

Kingsbridge

MARVELS OF MOTION
4 p.m. Kingsbridge Branch Library
291 West 231st Street
Isaac Newton would be proud! Come explore his laws
of motion with us in this abundantly engaging physics performance. Observe the power of all sorts of forces including
gravity, centrifugal force, inertia and much more. Then we’ll
harness the power of these forces together to create astonishing
jet packs and even a rocket-propelled car! This Mad Science
show is sure to please everyone and inspire more imaginative
learning in all audience members! Presented by Mad Science
of Westchester and Manhattan. For ages 5 and older. For more
information, call 718-548-5656.

Friday, March 23
Kingsbridge

BILINGUAL BIRDIES
10:30 a.m. Kingsbridge Branch Library
291 West 231st Street
A foreign language and live music program for children ages
newborn to ﬁve years old with parent/caregiver. The bilingual
musicians teach through live music, movement, puppetry and
games. Each session ends with a lively bubble dance party!
Children learn basic vocabulary and short phrases while
playing with instruments and fun props. For more information,
call 718-548-5656.

LENTEN LECTURE
1 p.m. St. Gabriel’s Church
3250 Arlington Avenue
Fr. John Knapp will speak on the topic, ‘Fathers of the
Church.’ For more information, call 718-548-4471.

Riverdale

RCT OPEN HOUSE
13:30:00 Riverdale-Kingsbridge Academy
660 West 237th Street
Riverdale Children’s Theatre will be holding an open
house for their Summer Lights Summer Session. For more
information please visit their website at www.riverdaletheatre.
org or call 646-436-3045

Riverdale

COLLEGE PROCESS 101
2 p.m. Riverdale Temple
4545 Independence Avenue
High school to college informational session “Gettting
Started With the College Process 101”. To RSVP, or for more
information: mollie.reznick@gmail.com

Riverdale

OPEN MIC
8 p.m. Century Tower
2600 Netherland Avenue
Musicians of all genres, from advanced amateurs to professionals are invited to bring their instruments and perform, and
the public at large is invited to attend for a wonderful night of free
entertainment at The Club of Riverdale, located in the Century
Tower. For more info, please email bronxharp1@aol.com.

Monday, March 26
Kingsbridge Hts.

CB8 MEETING
7:30 p.m. Kingsbridge Hts. Community Center

3101 Kingsbridge Terrace
Meeting of the Housing Committee of Community Board
8. For more information, call 718-884-3959.

FIERCE AND FABULOUS FASHION
4 p.m. Riverdale Branch Library
5540 Mosholu Avenue
West African traditions meets New York styles in this fun
fashion workshop. Join Vickie Freemont as you create your
own t-shirt, bag, or bracelet! All materials will be provided.
For ages 12 to 18 years old. For more information, call 718549-1212.

Kingsbridge

WORD PROCESSING
4 p.m. Kingsbridge Branch Library
291 West 231st Street
Learn the basic features of Microsoft Word 2003, a word
processing program you can use to create documents. Topics
include entering and editing text, saving ﬁles, and formatting.
Basic mouse skills are a pre-requisite. For more information,
call 718-548-5656.

Riverdale

ARC SEMINAR
7:30 p.m. St. Gabriel’s Church Meeting Room
Netherland Avenue
ARC invites all member buildings to send building managers and representatives of their Boards of Directors to attend.
The presentations will include: Energy $avings Techniques,
Compliance with Local Law 43, NYSERDA Programs.

TEEN MOVIES
4 p.m. Kingsbridge Branch Library
291 West 231st Street
Come join us for this monthly program in which we’ll be
showing great feature ﬁlms selected by our Teen Advisory
Group! For more information, call 718-548-5656.

Spuyten Duyvil

USING YOUR TABLET
5:30 p.m. Spuyten Duyvil Branch Library
650 West 235th Street
If you need help using your new tablet, come on in. There’s
more to mobile computing than web surﬁng. We’ll show you
the works, whether you’ve got an iPad or the latest in Android
hardware. For more information, call 718-796-1202.

Riverdale

TOASTMASTERS CLUB MEETING
7 p.m. Riverdale Neighborhood House
5521 Mosholu Avenue
Bronx Toastmasters Club of Riverdale invites new members to join in at their free meeting. For further information,
visit their website www.bronxtoastmastersclub.org or call
718-796-6671.

Riverdale

WRITING CLASS
7 p.m. Riverdale YM-YWHA
5625 Arlington Avenue
The Riverdale Y recently opened a Writers’ Center to foster
people’s love for the written word. Class for ‘Writing a Spiritual
Memoir’ on March 28. For more information and to register,
please visit riverdaley.org. For those interested in the poetry
workshop, please contact Sarah Stern directly at 718-432-9042
or 917-667-6528.

By MIAWLING LAM
Petco and Bank of America are slated
to join BJ’s Wholesale Club at Riverdale
Crossing, a yet-to-be-built shopping
center located at the former Stella D’oro
cookie factory site.
A revised brochure posted on Ripco Realty’s website last Thursday shows both businesses have ﬁled letters of intent to occupy
space at the new mall on Broadway between
West 236th and West 238th streets.
Ripco Realty is currently recruiting retailers to set up shop at the mall and is acting
as a leasing agent for the Long Island-based
owners, Metropolitan Realty Associates.
According to the updated three-page
ﬂyer, Bank of America has expressed interest in occupying a 2,800-square-foot parcel
of land facing the elevated subway tracks

on Broadway, while Petco wants to lease
a 9,995-square-foot space farther back
toward the Major Deegan Expressway.
Floor plans show at least four other
spaces ranging from 4,774 square feet
to just over 9,998 square feet are also
available. Documents show that up to 304
spaces of street-level and rooftop parking
will complement the retail space.
As of press time, repeated calls and emails
to Ripco Realty and Petco’s San Diego corporate headquarters were not returned.
Meanwhile, Bank of America spokeswoman Christina Beyer Toth declined to
conﬁrm that a letter of intent had been
ﬁled but issued a brief statement.
“We are exploring many opportunities,”
she said. “We are always looking at various
locations to ensure we provide convenient

March Madness

banking service to our customers.”
Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz believed both tenants would enhance the
local retail climate.
“When these kind of stores come into
an area, I think they’re basically demonstrating their conﬁdence in the area, so
I think it’s positive for the community,”
he said.
”I think, over time, we are going to
see continuing improvements in the
Kingsbridge area, partially as a result of
the additional stores coming in.”
As the Riverdale Review ﬁrst reported
last year, BJ’s Wholesale Club will anchor
the 114,598-square-foot mall and occupy
more than 80,000 square feet on West
237th Street.
The BJ’s in Gateway Center, a few miles
south in Mott Haven, is the third-most
successful branch in the country, giving
the wholesale club a good reason to open
another store in The Bronx.
The latest announcement comes just
weeks after rumors circulated that Trader
Joe’s and Petco would join the ranks at
Riverdale Crossing.
A picture uploaded on Ripco’s website
then removed days later even had the
Trader Joe’s logo superimposed on a mock
sign alongside BJ’s Wholesale Club.
At the time, sources said, the specialty grocer was simply on a “wish-list”
of desired tenants and that talks were
continuing.
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz
Jr. brieﬂy referred to the project during his
State of the Borough address last month.
He said activity at the site proved
that economic development dollars were
ﬂowing into The Bronx and predicted

���

Croton Park

Continued from Page 5
Dinowitz was also skeptical of the
2014 deadline.
“If these projects are all completed
within two years, that would be good, but
my own opinion is that that’s not going
to happen,” he said.
“I predict that when we’re in 2015, it
would still be that the projects haven’t
been completed.”
State Sen. Gustavo Rivera was also eager
for the ﬁnal Croton dollar to be spent.
“The Parks Commissioner was very
forthcoming regarding the progress that
has been made thus far and the projected
timelines for the completion of all 62
parks projects,” he said.
“Obviously I am anxious, just as my
constituents are, while we wait for park
projects and recreation centers to be
completed.”
The latest news comes a month after
City Comptroller John Liu announced
that he would audit capital spending on
local parks, including The Bronx’s $200
million Croton mitigation fund.
The audit was sparked after community
members expressed concerns that The Bronx
was being stiffed and that the city was reducing its capital allocations to the borough.

Sign up for membership now and get
APRIL FREE*
Become a member and take advantage of all the
Riverdale Y has to offer: Yoga, Zumba, Fitness Center,
Salt Synergy Indoor Pool plus much more.
Come take a tour. Call 718-548-8200, ext. 200
for more information.

development would spur the creation of
hundreds of jobs.
“This project will include several highlevel national retailers, will serve as a
major trafﬁc hub for the entire Broadway
commercial corridor and create more than
400 jobs in the process.”
Metropolitan Realty Associates purchased the parcel for nearly $19 million
last August.

Thursday, March 22, 2012 • The RIVERDALE REVIEW

10

Bloomberg has failed on the schools
By MARC EPSTEIN
In case you haven’t noticed, hunting
public school teachers is currently the sport
of choice for a passel of politicians, education philanthropists, and members of the
Fourth Estate, from Maine to Hawaii.
You have the sense that if wildlife preservationists don’t step in soon, the teacher
may go the way of the Dodo bird.
In recent weeks we have been assaulted
by the cacophony of sounds emanating
from the mayor’s ofﬁce, the teacher’s
union, and the news media, following
the release of teacher rankings based on
students’ performance on state English
and mathematics examinations for grades
4-8 spanning the years 2007-2010.
The teacher’s union unsuccessfully
argued that the test results were wildly
inaccurate, and releasing them could serve
no useful purpose, and do much harm.
Reputable testing experts conﬁrmed those
claims. The courts did not agree.
Mayor Bloomberg claimed he hadn’t
acted in bad faith by going back on an
agreement not to release the data. The
courts made him do it.
The press demanded the results in their
freedom of information ﬁlings, claiming
the “public’s right to know” transcended
other considerations. Transparency was
the watchword of the day.
The margin of error on the tests was as
much as 53% on the English examinations
and up to 35% on the math exams. Basic data
collection on the numbers of children tested,
class enrollment, and gender distribution
were inaccurate when teachers compared
the published data with their class lists.
The state admitted that the tests were
poorly structured measurements of student

achievement, and lacked validity. But the
editorialists maintained that it was the right
step in the right direction, and all things
considered, should be published. Once they
were published, the declared them “beyond
valuable,” “beyond essential.”
Perhaps sensing that Pandora’s Box was
about to open, Bill Gates wrote an op-ed in
the New York Times, just three days before
the results were made public. Gates, arguably the single most inﬂuential advocate
of the movement to grade teachers with
“value added” assessments, cautioned
against shaming teachers lest the results be
used punitively rather than as a corrective
tool for improving inadequate teachers.
Throwing caution to the wind, the
tabloids immediately began publishing names and pictures of the ”worst”
teachers in the system, at the same time
claiming that the publication of the
scores was designed to help these teachers
improve! They must not have read Bill
Gates’ column.
The blowback that followed the
data dump prompted Merryl Tisch, the
chancellor of the State Board of Regents,
to suggest that a change in the state law
might be advisable to protect the names
of the teachers from public view, while
still utilizing the test scores to evaluate
their performance. But this may be a
case of closing the barn door after the
horse is out. For his part, the mayor has
already indicated that he would oppose
any change to the law.
Now that the “furies” have been let loose,
I thought it might be useful if we stepped
back and viewed this contretemps through
a different lens, and place education reform
Continued on Page 19

By MIAWLING LAM
The city will repave two badly damaged
streets in Riverdale following a plea by
Councilman G. Oliver Koppell.
Department of Transportation ofﬁcials
this week announced they would place the
pothole-ridden streets of Mosholu Parkway South, between Jerome Avenue and
Paul Avenue, and West 227th Street, from
Netherland Avenue to Arlington Avenue,
on this year’s resurfacing schedule.
“While not the only badly damaged
roadways in the area, the two streets…

have multiple potholes, dangerous to
cars and pedestrians, and I am pleased
that they will be repaired,” Koppell said
in a statement.
“While I am gratiﬁed that the DOT is
paying some attention to our needs, much
more is necessary, and I intend to continue
to press our case for street repair.”
Koppell raised the dire need for street
resurfacing in a letter to DOT Bronx Borough Commissioner Constance Moran
earlier this month.
He also cited the stretch of West 254th
Street between Riverdale Avenue and the
Metro-North station as being in desperate
need of repairs.
The city’s response comes less than
a month after community members
slammed ofﬁcials for neglecting local
roads, arguing they resemble a patchwork normally seen in third-world
countries.
Commenting on the area’s pockmarked
pavements, Community Board 8 land use
chairman Charles Moerdler urged residents to kick up a stink about the city’s
resurfacing program.
“The streets are in terrible shape,” he
said at a general board meeting on Tuesday, February 14.
“You’ll get a ﬂat tire once a day from
the potholes. I’m not exaggerating. The
reason I make this point to you is the
following: They’re not paying attention
because they’re not getting yelled at.
“We have to get them [to listen]. I
jocularly refer to them as the Department
of Bicycle Transportation only because if
we were to advocate for a bicycle lane,
then you’ll have the whole job done in
24 hours.”

11
The RIVERDALE REVIEW • Thursday, March 22, 2012

Repaving relief for motorists on way

Thursday, March 22, 2012 • The RIVERDALE REVIEW

12

Continued from Page 1
Meanwhile, the legislature approved new
Senate and Assembly district boundaries last
week before Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
signed them into law as part of a deal that
included an agreement to modify the redistricting process after the 2020 census.
In the ﬁnalized Senate maps, Sen. Jeffrey
Klein will snap up all of Riverdale, which
is currently divided between three Senate
districts, and a large swath of The Bronx.
Klein, who already represents Pelham Bay
and Throggs Neck, said he was also happy to
snare Spuyten Duyvil and parts of Belmont.
“I look forward to representing the
Northwest Bronx communities of Spuyten
Duyvil, Fieldston, Van Cortlandt Village,
Riverdale and Kingsbridge,” he said.
“These areas have similar characteristics to communities I currently represent
and I look forward to working hard to

230th St. development

Continued from Page 1
was cautious about premature celebrations—EDC told him they would announce
the winning proposal in April—but said he
was glad to see a commercial-only plan.
“It would be a tremendous beneﬁt to
our community if this turns out to be the
case,” he said.
“I have long advocated for commercialonly development at this site, and our
community, as represented by its elected
ofﬁcials and community board, has spoken
out strongly in favor of commercial-only
development and against housing.
“I look forward to word from EDC that

Massage parlor
Continued from Page 3
working at the new massage parlor held
the appropriate licenses and had not previously worked at New Healing Touch.
Commanding ofﬁcer of the 50th Precinct Captain Kevin Burke said the case
has been referred to the NYPD’s Nuisance
Abatement division and is currently making its way through the courts.
Under a nuisance abatement order, a city
judge can order a building to be boarded up
if there is sufﬁcient evidence that two counts
of prostitution occurred on the premises.
“It takes approximately two to three
months to wind its way through the legal
system, and hopefully we’ll get a padlock
of that,” he said.
“We’re hoping that in the future, we’ll
get this place eventually shut down.”
Captain Burke also acknowledged the
location was a source of concern for the
community.
The NYPD Vice squad, which is attached to the Organized Crime Control
Bureau, is charged with investigating matters relating speciﬁcally to prostitution,
gambling and alcohol-related issues.
State Sen. Jeffrey Klein said he was
concerned that New Healing Touch may
be reopening under a new name.
“We’ve notified the appropriate
authorities of this development, and
Assemblyman Dinowitz and I are supporting the precinct’s request for a nuisance
abatement of this location,” he said.
“Furthermore, also we’ve introduced
legislation in Albany to speciﬁcally bring
a halt to this type of activity.”
Under the bill introduced in 2010,
state ofﬁcials could revoke the operating
license of a massage parlor if police can
rack up three prostitution arrests.

there will be a ground-breaking in the near
future for this development and look forward
to shopping there in the next few years.”
Dinowitz also said the large plots being
offered could help attract big-box retailers,
such as Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy or
Barnes & Noble.
According to their online profile,
Florida-based Equity One specializes in
the acquisition, asset management, development and redevelopment of shopping
centers across the United States.
“The majority of our shopping centers
are anchored by leading supermarkets,
pharmacies and large retail stores,” their
proﬁle states.
“We seek to create and maintain a diverse
tenant mix in order to limit our exposure
to any one tenant or retail segment.
“In addition, the majority of our
tenants are considered necessity-based
retailers, ensuring that our tenants thrive
in any economic environment.”
As the Riverdale Review ﬁrst reported
in January, EDC was choosing among ﬁve
bids, ranging from a single supermarket to
a 16-story mixed-use development with
200 units of housing.
Two of the ﬁve submitted proposals
called for housing, but Community Board
8 passed a resolution earlier this year
recommending to EDC that housing be
rejected due to trafﬁc safety concerns and
quality of life issues.
However, local organization Kingsbridge Riverdale Van Cortlandt Development Corporation has continued to lobby
for mixed-use development.
In an email sent to supporters as recently as March 14, KRVCDC maintained
that a mix of housing and retail remained
the “best and full use of this site.” But
critics speculated that KRVCDC had a
conﬂict because they stood to potentially
proﬁt from fees to manage the housing
portion of the plan.
The Broadway Plaza project has long
been mired in controversy.
Authorities ﬁrst proffered the site in 2005,
but the successful bidder, Ceruzzi Holdings,
spent years negotiating the sale price while
locals waited for construction to start.
The two parties ﬁnally agreed on a $6
million sale price in February 2011, but
Ceruzzi got cold feet and was unable to
close on the deal before the June deadline,
forfeiting a $1 million purchase price.
City ofﬁcials have lauded the site as one
of the last signiﬁcantly sized, primarily
vacant and developable sites along the
Broadway retail corridor.

13
The RIVERDALE REVIEW • Thursday, March 22, 2012

Redisticting

ensure that [their] voice is heard loud and
clear in the halls of the Capitol.”
The cosmetic changes also have Sen.
Gustavo Rivera’s 33rd District, swallowing
the Bronx Zoo and a small area to the east of
it, while Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson’s 36th
District becomes more compact and cuts off at
Allerton Avenue and East Gun Hill Road.
Remapped Assembly lines in The Bronx
remain the same as the original proposal,
with Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz adding
the only two buildings in Riverdale that
weren’t in his district as well as a number of
schools along the Jerome Park Reservoir.
Dinowitz said he was pleased with the
Assembly lines but believed the Senate
boundaries were inherently ﬂawed.
“My concerns about the Senate lines
relate to what was done in some areas of
the state,” he said.
“I do believe that if the lines were drawn
fairly, there would be a Democratic majority
in the state, and the way the lines are drawn
currently, that’s not likely to happen.”

Thursday, March 22, 2012 • The RIVERDALE REVIEW

14

15

The RIVERDALE REVIEW • Thursday, March 22, 2012

Thursday, March 22, 2012 • The RIVERDALE REVIEW

16

17

As part of this year’s Bronx Week celebrations, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.
will be honoring Bronxites that are 100 years
of age or older. If you or someone you know
meet this criteria and would like to participate
in this event, please contact Larcenia Walton
at 718-590-6248 or lwalton@bronxbp.nyc.
gov for more information.

RCS invites singers for
upcoming concert

The third and ﬁnal concert of the Riverdale Choral Society’s 2011-2012 concert season will focus the chorus’s talent on ‘popular’
music of 18th century Vienna during the
time of Mozart and Haydn and on ‘popular’
music from 20th century America. Titled
‘Light Classics from Vienna to Broadway’ the
program will feature selections by Mozart,
Haydn, Gershwin, Bernstein and others.
Music Director John Lettieri will begin
rehearsals for the June 2, 2012 concert on
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 at 7:30 p.m.
Since 1964, the Riverdale Choral
Society has been bringing joy to the
community through performances of
high-quality choral music. Our welcoming, diverse group of men and women
rehearses weekly under professional artistic direction, singing both traditional

and adventuresome repertoire. Through
live concerts and community outreach,
the chorus enriches the cultural life of
the greater Riverdale area.
If you are an experienced sight-reader or
even if you do not sight-read but have a good
musical ear you can schedule an informal audition with Music Director John Lettieri by sending an e-mail to riverdalechoral@gmail.com, or
calling 718-543-2219. Or you may sign up for
an informal audition at our open rehearsal on
Wednesday, November 30th at 7:30 PM. Choral
rehearsals will be held every Wednesday from
7:30 to 9:45 PM at Christ Church Riverdale,
252 St. and Henry Hudson Parkway East, where
there is street parking available and easy access
to public transportation.
Additional information can be obtained at the RCS web site: www.riverdalechoral.org.

Riverdale Nature
Preservancy to meet

The annual meeting and panel discussion of the Riverdale Nature Preservancy
will be held on Wednesday, April 4, 7:30
to 9 p.m., at the Riverdale Neighborhood
House, 5521 Mosholu Avenue.
This will be a dialogue between institutions
and neighbors on institutional growth, creating community, preserving natural assets.
Guest panelists include: Helen Morik, Vice
President, Government & Community Affairs,

With Passover approaching very soon,
Chabad Lubavitch of Riverdale will offer a one
of a kind “Real Model Matzah Bakery”.
This Matzah Bakery is an exciting, thrilling and educational experience for all ages of
children. With the children actually kneading, rolling and baking their own round,
hand-made matzah, it is the best educational
tool to enhance the proper observance of
the wonderful holiday of Passover.
Children will learn, experience and
taste the true traditional meaning of this
ancient custom of eating hand-made
Shmurah matzah on Passover.
Participants will also have a chance
to take part in pressing grape juice from
grapes using an Italian wine press. Free
samples of the pressed grape juice will be
handed out. Additionally, all children will
receive their own grape juice.
New for this year, there will be a whole
new dimension to the Model Matzah Bakery.

Visitors will be able to grind their own wheat instead of using store bought ﬂour, thus making
the program more hand-on and exciting.
Located at Chabad Lubavitch of Riverdale,
535 W. 246th St., the bakery will be open
for the public on Sunday, April 25, 10:30am
- 12:30pm. Tours will be given 30 minutes
past the hour, at 10:30am & 11:30am.
Admission is $10.00 per person. All
children will receive their own hand-made
Shmurah matzah to take home. Additional
matzah will be available (at cost price).
This year, Chabad will be able to accommodate large groups. Arrangements can
be made to have the program brought to
your school, group or synagogue. For more
information please call Chabad Lubavitch
of Riverdale: (718) 549-1100 Ext. 10

Finally, after months of delays and stalling, we ﬁnally have district lines from which voters will elect members of Congress, and
members of the state legislature. To say that this was delivered at
the eleventh hour is an understatement.
With federal deadlines looming to ﬁnalize the congressional lines, the
legislature failed to draw them on time. This put the ball in the court of
the judiciary, which promptly drew the lines themselves. The result is a
somewhat unsatisfying hodgepodge of ethnically created districts.
We have weighed in on this previously. We would much prefer
to see a color-blind system that ignores race and ethnic background.
With congressional districts mandated to be quite large – 700,000
residents – districts based strictly on geography would, by the nature
of the more diverse residential patterns, be far more preferable. But
this is not what we have gotten.
The old saying is that when you live by the sword, you die by
the sword. When ethnic politics becomes the end-all-and-be-all,
don’t be surprised when it comes back to bite you.
Gone are the days when The Bronx, home to so many diverse
groups could proudly shake off ethnic stereotypes and elect a White
Anglo-Saxon Protestant, Jonathan Bingham, and send him off to
Congress, where he served with distinction for 18 years. Each time
the political establishment tried to eliminate him by redrawing his
district to bring in more Irish, or more Jews, or even by drawing his
house out of the district, he managed to win each new group over, not
by the circumstance of his birth but by the power of his intellect.
This year, the ugly ethnic race may be between Congressman
Charlie Rangel, heir to the historic Harlem district once represented
by Adam Clayton Powell Jr., and State Senator Adriano Espaillat,
the energetic Dominican-born veteran legislator.
But Harlem has changed, and the new larger district includes a wide
swath of not just Upper Manhattan, but a large chunk of The Bronx as
well. A majority of the new district is Latino, and it is speculated that
Mr. Rangel, beset with ethical questions that resulted in his removal
as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, is
considered vulnerable. From the moment of his downfall as a committee chair, Mr. Rangel became a public servant whose future was behind
him. He, arguably, squandered the invaluable asset of his seniority.
That’s why we couldn’t be more pleased that there will be a competitive race for this seat. While Mr. Rangel’s years of experience deserve
respect, the nagging feeling lingers that he is running only as a placeholder, to try and hold the seat so that another black candidate could
be eased into his spot and given the advantage of incumbency.
We couldn’t care less about the background of any of our public
ofﬁcials. The question is, can they do the job and serve the public with
distinction? We suspect that Mr. Rangel may be past his expiration
date on his ability to be effective. Mr. Espaillat, on the other hand,
appears to us to be positioned for a long and productive career.
This is not to say that he is the perfect candidate. Perhaps wrapped
up in the moment of all this ethnic maneuvering, he allowed himself
to fall into rhetorical quicksand speaking at a public forum the other
day. But he was quick to acknowledge his overzealous verbiage and
we accept his expressions of regret.
The voters have the right to choose, not the backroom bosses,
and this is the most attractive aspect of this race. Rangel’s years of
experience and his record versus the energy of the attractive insurgent, Espaillat: A good old-fashioned election, for a change.
With Congressmembers Engel, Serrano and Crowley seemingly
secure, aren’t we entitled to one real election?

A bit of good news

The city seems to have wisely rejected the concept of housing
mixed into the proposed 230th Street shopping plaza. If true, this
thwarts the not-so-surreptitious agenda of the politically motivated
Kingsbridge Riverdale Van Cortlandt Development Corporation to
turn the plaza into a cash cow to fund their political program. It is
time for those interested in promoting business and not politicians
to emerge and ﬁnally put this Cliff Stanton/Cori Worchel/Tony
Cassino Clubhouse out of business.

Loyalty to the USA, Israel or both

To The Editor:
I suspect that an accusation
of “dual loyalty” will be made,
or contemplated, against the
editor of The Riverdale Review
for printing a guest editorial of
the NY Sun supporting Israel’s
sovereign right to defend itself
against Iran’s acquisition of
nuclear weapons.
Maliciously, this canard is
hurled against American Jews
who are supportive of Israel as
America’s most steadfast ally.
For example, In a current political contest in New Jersey one
candidate views Israel far more
favorably than his competitor.
For that, the former, has been
labeled with the familiar antiSemitic slur, as being guilty of
“dual loyalty,” or worse as Patrick
Buchanan disreputably put it,
an “Israel Firster,” (reminiscent
of the late 19th Century Czarist fraudulent, “Protocols of the
Elders of Zion”).
Certainly, one can love our
country and another, as well, to
whom one is tied by sentimentality, tradition, religion, etc. How

often do we hear people of any
number of heritages initiate an
expression with “In my country
- - - “ when in conversation as
they refer to their country of
origin? Yet, who would dream
of accusing them of disloyalty or lacking in patriotism
for Americat? That exposes the

The Hebrew Home replies

To The Editor:
In response to a recent letter
“Questioning the Hebrew Home,”
we wish to set the record straight on
several points raised by the writer,
Madlyn W. Dickens.
Ms. Dickens falsely accuses
the Hebrew Home At Riverdale of
spending millions of dollars on
art work and beautifying its landscape while neglecting the care
of its residents. To the contrary,
our collection of art and artifacts
is the result of donations from
many private individuals. Public
funds received by the Home are
used solely for the medical care of
our residents. We are also proud
of the magniﬁcent support we

anti-Semitic motivation behind
scurrilous charges leveled mainly
at American Jews.
If I were to be charged with
being more fearful of Iran’s existential threat to Israel than to
the United States, that I would
not deny. Iran could hurt the
Continued on Page 19

receive from those who believe in
our forward-looking approach to
elder care and who have helped
us establish and fund a variety
of stimulating social and cultural
programs.
She also uses unfortunate terms to
refer to our residents as “tortured’ and
their relatives and friends as “frustrated and agonized.” We strongly
disagree and welcome all visitors to
the Home to see the highest level of
elder care available in the nation. We
have decades of achievement and we
continue to set the standard for other
nursing facilities to follow. Our Harry
and Jeanette Weinberg Center for
Elder Care Abuse Prevention is being
copied around the country and we
recently opened a vision care center
on our campus.
Ms. Dickens says we are in
decline. No so. We continue to
move ahead and spend wisely.
We are geriatric-care professionals, dedicated to our residents and
to our Riverdale community.
Mort Fleischner
Public Affairs Spokesman
The Hebrew Home
At Riverdale

Continued from Page 10
in New York in its proper perspective.
For the ﬁrst 50 years of the 20th century much was accomplished in New York
City. Schools, subways, bridges, tunnels,
airports, highways, and skyscrapers, transformed the landscape. The numbers are
staggering. It included over six hundred
new schools, six major bridges, and four
tunnels connecting New York to New
Jersey and Manhattan to the outer boroughs of the city.
When completed, the Freedom Tower
at Ground Zero will have taken over thirteen years to plan and build since 911.
The Empire State Building took little more
than one year. The 2nd Avenue subway,
ﬁrst begun in the 1970s won’t complete
its 8.5-mile construction until somewhere
around 2050. It took less time to build over
600 miles of track and tunnels in the ﬁrst
ﬁfty years of the 20th century.
When it comes to education the differences are palpable too. Instead of building
schools, the “education mayor” takes
pride in closing over one hundred and
twenty ﬁve schools over the past decade,
with promises of more to come before he
leaves ofﬁce in 2013.
Three hundred small schools have been
located in the former buildings of the
closed comprehensive high schools, many
of them landmarks almost a century old.
If you work in one of those building you
are reminded of what they once were, and
the hollowed out shells they’ve become.

Loyalty to Israel

Continued from Page 18
US, there is no question about that, but
it is highly unlikely that this outlaw nation poses for us an existential threat as
it does with regard to Israel. There have
already been several wars waged aimed
at annihilating Israel since its rebirth in
1948, a number of intifadas, and tens of
thousands of missiles that mostly target
civilians from the Hizbollah and Hamas
terrorist forces.
The bombardment has been unrelenting for several recent weeks as hundreds
more rockets are being ﬁred at Israel’s
towns and cities by Hamas (now in alliance with the PLO). Also, in the planning
stage, is a “Global Million People March”
(invasion) into Israel. If one were to ask
themselves why Israel is always expected
to tolerate these assaults or respond with
“restraint,” the answer is a “no-brainer;”
most nations of the world are totalitarian
societies that abhor democratic ones, or
those among the latter a number with
long histories of Jew-hatred.
What I admire most about the Riverdale
Review reprinting the Sun’s editorial is
that it was not intimidated from doing
so, as would those with harder hearts and
weaker spines.
Theodore Fettman

A free nation needs your help

To The Editor:
A democratic Israel is being attacked
daily. Rockets are being ﬁred from Gaza
and Israeli’s are forced to enter bomb
shelters to protect their lives. The civilized world must condemn this madness.
Israel must protect its citizens. If Iran is
allowed to develop a bomb they will use
it. Iran’s nuclear weapon program must be
destroyed before it’s too late. Israel needs
your help. Do whatever you can to help
Israel survive.
Abraham Schneider

to carry out rational public policies.
Teachers didn’t decree that students
who make no academic progress can
remain in school until the age of 21. Nor
did they abolish the rigorous testing and
hiring practices that existed under the
defunct Board of Examiners and substitute a meaningless state teacher licensing
examination process.
They didn’t set policy that allows felons
to go from jail to school and back to jail on
a revolving door basis without establishing
special programs that attempt to address
soaring underclass crime rates. Teachers
didn’t make it all but impossible to expel
a student. Teachers didn’t foolishly destroy
differentiated diplomas because to offer
non-college bound programs to minority
students was likened to racial proﬁling.
Teachers didn’t rip shop classes out of buildings. Teachers didn’t dumb down the tests
in order to inﬂate graduation rates. Neither

did they invent phony “credit recovery”
programs that allow students who hardly
ever attended a class get credit for it by
completing meaningless projects.
The feigned outrage of politicians and
reformers at the teachers, who have had
their responsibilities increased over the
past ﬁve decades, while their authority
and legitimacy have been eroded in an
inverse proportion, is nothing more than
a macabre exercise in political nihilism.
This treacherous assault on a vital
public institution is little more than what
Joseph Conrad described as, “Personal impulses disguised as creeds.” I predict it will
come back to haunt its perpetrators.
“... We but teach bloody instructions,
which being taught return to plague
the inventor.” -- Macbeth by William
Shakespeare.
Marc Epstein in a New York City school
teacher.

19
The RIVERDALE REVIEW • Thursday, March 22, 2012

Schools failure

You sense what Rome must have been like
during its inexorable decline.
Despite claims of great success, remediation rates at the city colleges belie the
validity of the increased graduation rates.
In addition, about two hundred charters
have opened under Bloomberg’s tenure.
All things considered, you’d have
to say that a sclerotic city has replaced
what was once the nation’s most vibrant
metropolis, despite massive increases in
public spending.
When you place education reform in
this mix, a very different picture emerges.
It isn’t the great civil rights issue of the
century. To call it that is an affront to those
who fought, sacriﬁced, and even died to
overturn racial segregation. It isn’t the
failed performance of the city’s teachers
that has led us this state of affairs. It is
little more than the failure of publicly
elected leaders to hire capable employees